Looking for Silverstream
by RiverLee
Summary: GrayXSilver one-shot, should be WAY longer but is really short. plz R


**This is the first one-shot in a series of many although they will be separate stories.**

Looking for Silverstream

The wind pushed the branches of the willow tree that guarded the RiverClan camp into a creaking mass but there was an opening in the branches that allowed an outsider to look in on the peaceful setting. I murmured to Mosspelt that I was leaving to hunt for her. I, a young gray tom with a dark stripe that ran from the back of my head to the tip of my tail, stepped out from a den of brambles. As soon as the wind parted my long, thick fur I shivered uncontrollably and wished I had stayed in the nursery with my kits.

I am Graystripe, and this is the RiverClan camp. I had previously lived in ThunderClan with my best friend, Fireheart, but once I met a beautiful she-cat from RiverClan I immediately fell in love with her, and this love changed the course of events that is my life. The she-cat's name was Silverstream. She was the most beautiful queen I had ever laid my eyes on. Silverstream saved my life from drowning in her beloved river, but I was never able to save hers when she needed me to. She died as she lived, giving life to our kits, Featherkit and Stormkit.

And now, I still can't believe what has happened to her. Crookedstar, RiverClan's leader, was her father, and his Clan demanded that Bluestar give my kits to their mother's clan. Bluestar refused but to stop any bloodshed that may have occurred I had to give up my kits. I did, but I had to leave my life in ThunderClan behind to do it. It broke my heart to have to choose between my birth clan and my kin, but my mentor was dead and the whole clan, other than Fireheart, Cinderpaw and Yellowfang, thought I was a traitor. The only way I could escape that fate was to leave with them and start life anew in RiverClan.

Our love was forbidden, because we came from different clans, but that didn't stop us from seeing each other. I snuck out of the ThunderClan camp everyday to see her, leaving my apprentice's training to Fireheart. There were times though that I wasn't able to leave camp and so I'd lay in the warriors den and think about her, how her silver tabby pelt rippled over her thin, muscular body, her eyes gleaming like sapphires in the pale pre-dawn light, the way the water shed off her pelt that looked dryer than it was.

But on that one terrible morning we slipped out of our camps' to see each other, Silverstream close to kitting. We met on Sunning Rocks so she wouldn't have to travel very far, the light beautifully dancing on the rippling river. We were hidden between two large rocks when she let out a terrible screech, and the sky turned from beautiful pinks and grays of pre-dawn, to an appalling blood-red sky as the sun rose above the river. Then out of nowhere I saw a flash of a flame-colored pelt, and yowled to Fireheart to go back to camp and get Yellowfang. Moments after my friend left a shadow fell over us and I automatically started growling as I turned around. I came face to face with Tigerclaw, ThunderClan's tyrant deputy. I stopped growling and turned away from Tigerclaw and whispered to Silverstream, "Hold on love. Fireheart will be back soon with Yellowfang. Just hold on."

Every second was agonizingly painful for both of us, Tigerclaw still staring at us with disgust. I soon heard pawsteps pounding on the ground and smelled Fireheart's and Cinderpelt's ThunderClan scent wafting towards me on the slight breeze.

"Move Graystripe, I have to get a better look at her," Cinderpelt pushed me aside and I heard Tigerclaw whispering to Fireheart about how this was forbidden and asking him how long he knew I had been slipping out of camp to visit with a RiverClan cat. I shut my mind to their conversation; I knew I would hear about it again. Instead I concentrated on Silverstream and Cinderpelt, blood pooled on the ground around me and Silverstream. I soon saw movement and heard Cinderpelt tell Fireheart to start licking and get the blood flowing, but I wasn't really listening.

I heard a rasping mew from Silverstream, "Graystripe, take care of our kits. We will be together again someday." With that she shuddered and then grew silent and still.

I would have screamed, but my throat had tightened and I couldn't talk. I felt the soft brush of fur but I didn't look to see who it was I just mewed, "I'm going to stay here and bury her, by the river. She loved it here, it feels right to bury her by the river. Her own clan would never take her knowing she betrayed them and let a tom from an enemy clan father her kits."

Thoughts passed through my mind while I was alone. Thoughts like _ThunderClan will think of me as a traitor. I shouldn't go back. I could run up river and see if I can find a place to settle, but then I'd be alone. I'd miss Fireheart, sleeping in a den full of sleeping warriors and a clan that loves me. I don't want to miss Brakenpaw's warrior ceremony, and I can't leave Fireheart alone with Tigerclaw still alive. I'll just stay here and see what happens._

Fireheart told me he would come back and sit vigil with me and he did. He settled down beside me and I asked, "Where are the kits? They should be buried here with there mother."

Fireheart gently explained to me that my kits were still alive and that Goldenflower was taking care of them. I asked him to take me to see them and when I walked into the nursery I saw Goldenflower with her two kits but I also saw two small, gray lumps of fur nestled into her belly. I padded over to her and told her I was glad that she was taking care of my kits, and she replied with a gentle your welcome and asked me what their names were. I took a closer look at the kits, _my_ kits, and saw that there was one male and one female. I told Goldenflower that the tom's name was Stormkit and the female was Featherkit. I thanked the gentle queen and left her with my kits.

After their training was over and they received their warrior names, Feathertail and Stormfur, they left on a journey to sun-drown-place and I never saw Feathertail again. My son told me that she died saving The Tribe of Rushing Water from Sharptooth. The Tribe's ancestors had told the tribe that a silver cat would save them from the giant cat that hunted them, and at first they believed that Stormfur was the silver cat in the prophecy, but it was Silverstream that had saved them from their fate. I will miss her in the moons to come, but I must stay strong for my Clan.

That is the story of forbidden love that befelled me and cost my mate her life.


End file.
